Na**particles Made of Building Blocks Integrate Multiple Chemo Agents
 

Na**particles Made of Building Blocks Integrate Multiple Chemo Agents
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Researchers at MIT have developed a method of creating na**particles that can carry three or more different chemo ***** simultaneously into a tumor. Moreover, in an unusual twist, it seems like the ***** ended up acting differently than when delivered systemically, pointing to the delivery method affecting how a medication actually behaves. *“People tend to take it as a given that when you put a drug into a na**particle it’s the same drug, just in a na**particle,” said*Jeremiah Johnson, associate professor of chemistry*at MIT in a statement. “Here, in collaboration with Mike Hemann [associate professor of biology], we conducted detailed characterization using an RNA interference assay that Mike developed to make sure the drug is still hitting the same target in the cell and doing everything that it would if it weren’t in a na**particle.”

Instead of binding ***** to custom na**particles or enclosing them inside some kind of vesicles, MIT’s technique works kind of like Lego blocks that contain different drug compounds and stick together thanks to a bit of **vel chemical engineering.*In addition to deciding which ***** to combine, the new method also lets scientists define how much of each drug should end up within final na**structure, allowing for more targeted and more powerful therapies.

More from MIT’s an**uncement:

The researchers found that na**particle-delivered camptothecin and doxorubicin worked just as expected. However, cisplatin did **t. Cisplatin **rmally acts by linking adjacent strands of DNA, causing damage that is nearly impossible for the cell to repair. When delivered in na**particle form, the researchers found that cisplatin acts more like a different platinum-based drug k**wn as oxaliplatin. This drug also kills cells, but by a different mechanism: It binds to DNA but induces a different pattern of DNA damage.

The researchers hypothesize that after cisplatin is released from the na**particle, via a reaction that kicks off a group k**wn as a carboxylate, the carboxylate group then reattaches in a way that makes the drug act more like oxaliplatin. Many other researchers attach cisplatin to na**particles the same way, so Johnson suspects this could be a more widespread issue.

His lab is **w working on a new version of the cisplatin na**particle that operates according to the same mechanism as regular cisplatin. The team is also developing na**particles with different combinations of ***** to test against pancreatic and other types of cancers.

Study in Journal of the American Chemical Society: Using an RNAi Signature Assay To Guide the Design of Three-Drug-Conjugated Na**particles with Validated Mechanisms, In Vivo Efficacy, and Low Toxicity…

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